(01202) 693096

My name is Ian Butler I am 55 years old and have been a Butcher all of my working life.

Let me tell you what Oakley Butchers is all about.

I started Butchering in Wimborne in 1982, training at Wilson & Sons in the High Street. I was made Manager in 1997 & was made a Partner in 2000. But sadly, due to the ever increasing costs that all small traders face we could make it pay no longer. In 2005 the shop that had been a butcher’s for 350 years became one of the three butchers shops that close every week nationally.

I opened Oakley Butchers in Oct 2005 and decided to go the Free-Range route. In Feb 2006 we took our first delivery of Red Devon Beef from Horton, five miles north of Wimborne & we are one of only a handful of butchers accredited by the Devon Red Breeders Society. We now have a full selection of local free-range meat, Fantastic Dorset Lamb. The trio is completed with Free-Range Orchard Farm Pork from our wholesaler in Hampshire.

Since we opened in Merley Ten years ago, the shop has gone from strength to strength. Starting with a staff of just three full-timers, we have seen the business grow and grow fuelled by the customers demand for local naturally reared free-range meat. Due to this demand and us outgrowing the Merley shop, we opened another shop on the Broadway in Broadstone in October 2008.

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Whenever you go into the shops you notice they have a real family feel to them, where nothing is too much trouble, My Wife Mary and I tend to be based at the Merley Shop and our new business partner, Andy can usually be found running the Broadstone Shop.

Between the two shops, we're very proud to have a staff of 12 fantastic people.

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We are also proactive in training staff. We have two apprentice butchers at the moment & three that we have put through their apprenticeships that we have retained as full members of staff.

“Butchery is a dying trade and I feel that it is the responsibility of every traditional butchers to invest in training”

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We regularly visit the farms and select stock from the field. All of the farmers that we use are members of the countryside stewardship. As well as other commitments, they maintain a 25ft border around each field that they leave wild. This promotes wildlife, hedgerows & wild flowers. All the animals are naturally reared and are free from antibiotics and growth promoters. We then carcass hang the meat and cut to the customer’s requirements.